Investigation of shunt solar cells’ currents based on equivalent circuit model

In view of the universality of the parallel connection of solar cells and their mismatch problem, in the present paper, we select two shunt solar cells （connected in parallel） as our research object, and use the equivalent one-diode circuit of the solar cell and the analysis of the two-body model. At first, the equations of current and voltage are deduced from the related electrical laws and the circuit diagram of the two solar cells connected in parallel. Then, according to the experimentally measured data of typical single-crystalline silicon solar cells （125 mm×125 mm）, we select the appropriate simulation parameters. Following this, by using the photo-generated current, the shunt resistance, and the serial resistance of one of the shunt solar cells and the load resistance as independent variables, in turn, the changing characteristics of each branch current in the two shunt solar cells are numerically discussed and analyzed for these four cases for the first time. At the same time, we provide a simple physical explanation for the modeling results. Our analyses show that these parameters have different impacts on the internal currents of solar cells connected in parallel. These results provide a reference to solve the problem of connecting solar cells and to develop higher efficiency solar cells and systems. Meanwhile, the results will contribute to a better comprehension of the reasons for efficiency loss of solar cells and systems, and deepen the understanding of the electrical of solar cells behavior for high performance photovoltaic applications.